My choice.....Here is the Luke Yaklich Bio:

Entering his second season with University of Michigan basketball, Luke Yaklich brings the Wolverine program over 20 years of experience on the sidelines.

In his first season with Michigan, Yaklich was instrumental in transforming U-M's defensive approach as the Wolverines led the Big Ten in scoring defense for first time since 1964 and closed eighth nationally in scoring defense (63.3 points per game allowed). Overall, U-M was third in Defensive Efficiency according to the KenPom ratings (90.5).

With a strong defense mindset, U-M went on to post a program record 33 wins and nearly win the national championship. After repeating as Big Ten Tournament champions winning four games in four days for a second straight year, the Wolverines advanced to the Final Four for the second time in six years. After defeating Cinderella Loyola-Chicago in the semifinal, U-M fell to Villanova in the national title game.

Prior to joining U-M, Yaklich made the transition from high school to college coaching in 2013-14 getting hired at his alma mater Illinois State as an assistant under head coach Dan Muller.

Yaklich and Muller first teamed up as students at ISU, beginning in 1996. Yaklich served as the men's basketball manager/student assistant from 1996-98 while Muller played his final two seasons. Yaklich did his part in helping ISU to two regular-season and Missouri Valley Tournament titles, including trips to the NCAA Tournament in 1997 and 1998.

Before the start of the 2016-17 season, Yaklich was promoted to associate head coach ahead of the campaign. With the new position, he helped the Redbirds to a share of the Missouri Valley regular-season title as ISU set program records for overall victories (28), regular-season wins (25) and conference triumphs (17).

In his four years with the Redbirds, Yaklich helped guide Illinois State to an 86-50 record and three postseason berths -- the 2015 and 2017 National Invitation Tournament and 2014 College Basketball Invitational.

In addition to his coaching duties with the Redbirds, Yaklich was in charge of ISU men's basketball academics along with assisting in recruiting, scouting and working on skill development. In the fall of 2014, ISU established a team grade-point average record with a 2.99 GPA, breaking the previous mark by 0.13 points. In 2016, Justin McCloud earned a spot on the MVC Scholar-Athlete second team.

Prior to joining Illinois State, Yaklich worked as a high school head coach and teacher for 14 years, primarily teaching U.S. History at the high school level.

Yaklich was the head boys' basketball coach at Joliet Township High School in Joliet, Illinois, for six seasons (three in the combined Joliet Township program and three at Joliet West), was well as coach for the Joliet Pride and Illinois Wolves AAU teams.

In his final season with Joliet West in 2013, he guided the Tigers to the IHSA Class 4A Lockport Regional title with a 19-8 record, ending in the season advancing to the sectional semifinals. He also led the 2009-10 Joliet Township team to a 24-8 mark and the Homewood-Flossmoor Sectional Championship. For his efforts, Yaklich was named 2010 District 9 Illinois Basketball Coaches Association (IBCA) Coach of the Year. Overall he finished with a 104-62 (.635) record at Joliet.

Before that his stint with Joliet, Yaklich served was the head boys' basketball coach at La Salle-Peru Township High School from 2003-07, at the Sterling High School head boys' basketball coach from 2000-03 and the head girls' basketball coach at La Salle-Peru from 1999-2000.

A La Salle, Illinois native and 1994 graduate of La Salle-Peru High School, Yaklich played his high school basketball for the Cavaliers. He graduated from Illinois State in 1998 with a Bachelor of Science degree in with endorsements for American and World History, Sociology, Political Science, Geography.

He would later earn two master's degrees from Olivet Nazarene. In 2004, he earned his Master of Education and followed in 2009 with a Master of Education Administration. In 2012, he became National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT) for social studies.

He and his wife, Amy, have three children: Olivia, Griffin and Taylor.

Ryan is my neighbor (though I don't really know him personally). He is a Columbus native and probably pretty happy to be where he is at. Not saying he won't jump to a head coach job some day, just not sure the time is now both for him and for would-be interested teams as OSU seems to be taking a step back this season.

The way these things usually go...someone not even on our radar right now.

I think that this is an excellent point. I hadn't thought of it this way, but you've kind of convinced me.

If you combine this thought, with the idea that Schaus likes folks with college head coaching experience, it would seem to make long-time BA favorite Jeff Boals and some-like-him-some-dont Geno Ford as top level candidates.

This would be my pick...

https://winthropeagles.com/coaches.aspx?rc=938&path=mbball

Pat Kelsey at Winthrop. He has successfull head coaching experience and has ties to the state of Ohio.

Kelsey would be my pick as well. Has Ohio ties (the state not the school) and could recruit the state hard. My issue is I don't know if we could afford him now. Maybe when we hired Saul, but not now.

Pat Kelsey famously accepted the UMass job and then backed out a few days later; the UMass job offered ~800k annually, all in. I'd be shocked if a) Pat Kelsey is more interested in the Ohio job than the UMass job and b) he'd accept so much less than he just proved he was able to get on the market.

I think there's an awful lot of folks here who are in for a pretty rude awakening regarding how popular this job's going to be.

I'd go the P5 assistant route and tap into a well-respected coaching tree in the midwest. For me, the obvious name is Ryan Pedon.

But I'd also look at Brett Nelson at Marquette, Micah Shrewsbury (Celtics but previously Butler/Purdue), and Tom Ostram (Indiana/Dayton).

Dustin Ford's intriguing too. It's gotta mean something that so many players wanted him when Groce left.

Oh, and an outside the box thought: why not offer Sean Miller a stable place to land when he inevitably has to resign from Arizona and needs to take a redemption job?

How about Steve Alford

Billy Donlon was hot going into Wright State - any thoughts?

While we're at it, bring back the GA from that era too!

(Current UCF AD Danny White for those curious)

Alan, definitely the best coach that has been listed so far. I like him a lot, great pick for someone that I wish we could get to come to the real Harvard (on the Hocking).

However, when he took that job at Harvard it also was a double hire for him and his wife, who really didn't need Amaker to land her job at Harvard Med. Incredibly bright individuals to be honest don't seem to be leaving Harvard anytime soon.

He makes 700k and Harvard is a better job than Ohio.